THE MOON CHILD

Chapter 4 - New Discoveries

MEETING ROOM

We were all seated around the circular conference table with Sam sitting right in front of me, even though I tried not to make any eye contact with him I could feel him gazing at me, I felt a shiver run down my spine with just the thought of him looking at me.

His dad placed two files in front of us which contained all the details of the ghost killings in their territory. Alpha Amanuel turned towards me and said: “ Hope I have heard that your team has encountered and studied about these kinds of killings, we are going to need you on this one .”

“ Sure Alpha “ I nodded still trying to avoid eye contact with Sam.

“ In last 5 years we lost 8 members of our pack like this, the intensity of killings have increased in last two months with 4 of our pack members dying in recently, we need your help since we have never encountered or fought whatever is responsible for this before,” alpha Amanuel said breaking my thoughts from Sam.

“ Earlier we thought it was a vampire and were trying to revolve our investigation around that, but now since the speed of killings have increased, we need to increase our speed of investigation too and hence we wanted to use all the help and the information we could gather, “ he said in a very serious tone looking at my mother.

My mother looked concerned, we have lost 10 of our pack members in a span of 4 years and couldn’t afford to lose more.

“ Working together is a good idea Alpha, like this, we can investigate without any territorial reservations,” my mom said giving me a quick look.

“ We wanted to include other packs but they are not yet open to the idea of investigating together in their property” he paused and then continued “ plus the number of killings is almost negligible outside our territory, so they being less concerned is understandable”.

He looked at his son and nodded like he wanted Sam to continue.

Sam got up and moved towards the projector screen “ the killings earlier were random spread across our pack territory, but the recent killings have been concentrated more near the northern and the northwestern part of our pack territory, with 4 of our pack members dying in last 2 months “ he said with both concern and anger visible on his face. 

He turned towards me and continued “ they were all sucked out of blood not left with even a single drop in their body, dried black like charcoal” he said, never leaving his eye contact with me, his eyes made me feel like butterflies were floating in my stomach.

 I took a sip of water from the glass cup placed in front of me.

“ We doubt that it has to do something with the vampires, but could not get lead on any particular clan, for that matter of fact not even on rogues, nor do we know the reason for why they could have done something like that, and without proof, it will lead to an open war with a lot of casualties”. He said moving his fingers into his hair. There was silence for some time. 

“No it’s not vampires, “I said breaking the silence. I stood up and moved towards the projector and pointing out the picture of the body, I said” vampire bitten don’t turn black even if their entire blood is sucked out, they turn pale and white, Plus I had a meeting with a vampire from the clan next to our territory; it’s not just our people but 2 of their type also died in the period of last two months and they are also investigating on the same” I said shifting my focus from Alpha Amaneual to Sam. He was still looking at me with concern in his eyes.

“I would like to share something with you Alpha, if you would allow,” I said looking at Alpha Amanuel. He gave me a nod in approval. I turned towards Jasper and nodded. He looked down at his I- pad and moved his fingers on the touch screen, after which the projection of the map for our territory, their territory along with the unclaimed areas between our packs were displayed on the whiteboard.

 “ In our territory, the major killings were mostly near the southern part opposite to yours, and if look at the map...” I turned my gaze towards Jasper who then again pressed on the screen of his tab and the exact locations of killings were displayed both of our as well as their land on the projection board.

“ ...it’s not just wolves but also humans and vampires that were killed,” I said “ we also investigated in the unclaimed regions about the date and time of killings and we figured out something, I took a black marker and started making a circle on the whiteboard on which the slide was being projected, joining the locations of the killings.

After this, I turned towards everyone and said “ all the killings on the circle were done on full moon nights, and as we can see, out of the eight killings that fall on the circle formed 6 are werewolves, 3 from our pack and 3 belonged to yours, two are vampires and one is human that you found here at the center of the circle.  ” I said before turning towards my mother “ we need to go there and investigate, “ I said, focusing on my mother with a stern voice, but before she could say anything Sam got up and came near the projector changing the slide on the display screen. 

He came very close to me, standing right behind me. I could feel his breath on my shoulder, I jerked forward in response and turned around to see the screen. 

There was a large picture with a circle drawn on a brick wall in white paint and something written inside it in red paint. “ we found it there, at the location where the human was killed and nothing more “ Sam said looking at me.

 “ We should go there and investigate, something says we will get our answers there next Monday,” I said looking at Sam

“Full moon “we both exclaimed together. I was taken aback by our unanimous thought process and he smiled. I looked at my mother and said: “Let us go and investigate “. 

“My team will join too “ Sam interrupted ” I want to know who is behind the loss caused to my pack, “ he said in a serious alpha tone.

I looked down at my footwear and nodded in agreement, it was their land after all and I was not in a position to deny.

“Very well “ My mother spoke, “ Use this one week to train together before the investigation, if what we have concluded is true, you will need that the upcoming Monday “.

My mother turned towards Alpha Amanueal and said: “I’ll send my elite team to train with you from tomorrow morning “.

They greeted each other and started to leave the room one after another. I got up to collect the files on the killings to study before investigation. He moved towards the chair across the table and sat down closing his eyes. I was still in denial of him being my mate.

FLASHBACK

“How the f**k he dared to touch my bag Jasper I am going to beat the s**t out of him “ I was fuming with anger when jasper came and sat beside me.

I could see he was trying to control his laughter.” That asshole Sam placed a frog in my bag with a note that said - kiss me, I am your prince charming” I said to him.

Jasper ruffled my hair and said, “try and control your temper kid, stop getting angry on smaller things like this.” 

I looked at him not believing what he just said, I got up and tried to punch him but he held my hand. I was 9 and jasper was 15 at that time. He laughed at pulled me into a hug and said: “You are like my little sister Hope, if you want I can kick his ass for you”.

I looked up and him and replied angrily “no, I can take care of myself “and ran towards my house. I was fast; jasper being 6 years older than me still couldn’t catch me.

PRESENT

“I can still kick his ass for you “ Jasper whispered to me hugging me as he knew the turmoil I was going through being with Sam in the same room.

Bam!! I could feel Sam smacking his fist on the table. Jasper turned towards him but before he could say something he heard my mother calling for him and left immediately.

 I started to collect the files to leave, avoiding looking at him when I felt him standing right behind me. He came close with his lips near my ear and he whispered “The Moon Goddess decided for you to be my mate Hope, I will not let anyone touch you, you are mine, mine Hope” he snarled.

 I felt him moving close to me and felt his breath on my neck. My body stiffed for a second anticipating his next move but then he turned around and left. 

I could still feel his lemongrass smell linger around me. I sat down on the chair with frustration, hiding my face in my palms.

I knew I could have easily punched him for coming that close but something inside me stopped me.